Safe management downwind can lead to controversy. Most of my sailing is in traditional boats with long (by today's standards) booms.
Most preventers and even forward guys don't really have the leverage - don't go far enough out on the boom - to handle the stress. Either you tear one end off the rail or the other off the boom or you break the boom. If nothing breaks and you don't catch the gybe and get back on course rapidly enough, then the backed main wraps the boat around with singular violence.
So all in all, I'd rather risk a gybe than use a preventer or guy.
If need be, I'll tack downwind so that the boat's sailed more on a gybe-proof broad reach rather than risk the gybe. Better a little extra distance.
If sailing straight down wind really matters for whatever reason, whether the demands of a close race or the exigincies of obstructions, I try to get a relief helmsman settled in on a broad reach before resuming a dead run.
G'luck
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